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Going to this year’s SXSW? Many Philly bands are heading to Austin for the music conference starting next week and this year WXPN and The Key along with Philly based music blogger YVYNYL (Mark Schoenveld) are presenting SXSWPHILLY 2011 on Thursday, March 17th starting at High Noon Austin time at the The Broken Neck. The show, organized by Pat Troxell of Creepoid, is free and will feature two stages and 12 bands.

With a name like JEFF the Brotherhood, one night expect some politically charged group of rebel rousers to rally on behalf of a write-in candidate for next week’s Governor race. Not the case here. Nashville’s JEFF The Brotherhood return to Philly Wednesday night to rally for the rock at Kung Fu Necktie with two of Philly’s very coolest new bands – The Spooks (hot off their Making Time show last week) and Bandname (who have a fondness for The Buzzcocks). As for the Brotherhood brothers (they really are), a new album called We Are The Champion is not expected until next year, however our friends over at Brooklyn Vegan dropped a new jam called “Diamond Way” which you can download here. Kung Fu Necktie, 8PM. Tickets are $8.00. 21 years and over.

Fishtown garage-surf loonies The Spooks have had a busy month. Hot on the heels of a great slot on last Friday’s Making Time bill, the band has two more big-ish appearances this week. Wednesday, October 27th, The Spooks perform at Kung Fu Necktie, opening for Nashville power duo Jeff The Brotherhood, and then they’re part of the massive T.J. Kong “murder show” festival at the Ukie Club on Halloween. (‘Tis the season for all things spooky, we suppose.) Check out “Sleepy Sleepy,” the A-side to The Spooks’Sleepy Monsters 7” from earlier this year.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22Making Time returns to Voyeur, and Dave P is bringing a few friends with him: Brooklyn-based indie-pop quartet The Drums and West Palm Beach, Florida’s Surfer Blood. Meanwhile, local garage-rock quartet The Spooks will perform in the venue’s Ruby Lounge basement with the RockTits DJs. And, to top it off, Dave P will also be putting together a Making Time RADio local-band mix for us over here at The Key. All of which means Philadelphia’s raddest hyper-rad dance party just got significantly more radically radical. Rad! The Drums perform with Surfer Blood at 9 p.m. at Voyeur; tickets to the 21+ show are $15.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23
How do we feel about Phoenix‘s now-ubiquitous single “1901″ from last year’s critically acclaimed Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix? Well, we love its beautiful, stripped-down simplicity—quite possibly the band’s crowning songwriting achievement to date. (One that took the French quartet 14 years—and three previous albums—to create.) And we always get a kick out of the way that Thomas Mars’ charmingly imperfect voice cracks when he sings “Eighteen fifty-five, nineteen ooHHH-one” halfway through the song. But, more than anything else, it really makes us want to buy a brand-new Cadillac SRX. After all, why listen to Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix on your 1995 Volkswagon Jetta’s crappy tape deck when you could do so in style, driving the world’s only true luxury crossover SUV (modestly priced at $34,155)? Well, other than that whole safety recall thing. Phoenix performs with Jenny And Johnny and Wavves at 8 p.m. at the Tower Theater; tickets are $45.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24
Has it really been 10 years since Erin McKeown released her breakthrough sophomore album, Distillation? It must be, because her performance at World Cafe Live is billed as part of her “Distillation 10th Anniversary Tour.” Still, it seems like it was just yesterday that people were asking, “Hey, who is this kooky folk-rock singer-songwriter that started her own label and isn’t Ani DiFranco?” Erin has, of course, made her own name for herself since then, releasing an additional four studio albums of unpredictable, genre-jumping music—including last year’s Hundreds Of Lions (which came out, coincidentally, on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records)—while constantly playing on the road. During this performance, she’ll play Distillation in its entirety, followed by a set of more recent material. Erin McKeown performs at 7:30 p.m. at World Cafe Live; tickets are $30-$40.

Also playing: Matt And Kim + Donnis at Starlight Ballroom (7:30 p.m., SOLD OUT); Gentleman Jesse And His Men + The Barreracudas, Woman at Kung Fu Necktie (8 p.m., $10)

Our ears perked up a few weeks ago when we first heard about The Spooks from our friend Dave P at Making Time. The Fishtown garage-rock quartet is on the bill of the Friday, October 22nd, edition of Making Time, which features The Drums and recent Warner Bros. signee Surfer Blood. Dave told us he had recently been kicking around the idea of booking local bands; so, while The Drums and Surfer Blood are in the main room upstairs, The Spooks will be playing in the Ruby Lounge basement of Voyeur with a handful of DJs. Dave P will also be putting together a Making Time RADio local-band mix for us over here at The Key, which you should stay tuned for. (Speaking of Making Time RADio w/Dave P On WXPN, the show will get a special Friday-night treatment on October 15th from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.; in November, the show will move to the first Friday of every month from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.)

About The Key

Philadelphia: Home to a rich musical history, a unique musical identity, and one of the nation's most thriving musical communities. In a scene filled with so many local bands worth listening to, there will always be new music to discover—and The Key is your source for finding it. Brought to you by WXPN—the non-commercial public radio station that World Cafe, XPN2, and XPoNential Music Festival call home—The Key covers all local music in Greater Philly and beyond.GET IN TOUCH

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About The Key

Philadelphia: Home to a rich musical history, a unique musical identity, and one of the nation's most thriving musical communities. In a scene filled with so many local bands worth listening to, there will always be new music to discover—and The Key is your source for finding it. Brought to you by WXPN—the non-commercial public radio station that World Cafe, XPN2, and XPoNential Music Festival call home—The Key covers all local music in Greater Philly and beyond.GET IN TOUCH